Hmm. I've skimmed through the responses so far and I find it interesting how other people seem to think of this question in terms of therapist asking them to promise something having to do with their own life. I've never made such a promise to my therapist. Three times or so I specifically said what I would do and when to encourage clarity so that I would indeed do something difficult for me, but those weren't promises to those therapists.

When I read the questions, I thought about how I sometimes promise my therapist (my own initiative) to do things for him like I wanted to bring him a special kind of coffee to share one time or send him a poem that was important to me, or my promise to do things that are expected such as show up at the scheduled appointments or cancel in due time and things like that. I don't like making promises to anyone that are about my own path in life - that only concerns me and I should only promise myself those kinds of things.